Revolights inks Series A co-­led by Sierra Angels and Sacramento Angels

Revolights has received $1 million of Series A funding in a round co-­led by Sierra Angels and Sacramento Angels. The business is a maker of revolutionary bike lights.

PRESS RELEASE

Revolights, makers of revolutionary bike lights, announced it has received $1 million of Series A funding in a round co-­led by Sierra Angels and Sacramento Angels along with two other funds (see below).

Revolights has been working to create a new standard in bicycle safety since 2011. Revolights’ next generation bike lighting system consists of “smart” rings of LEDs which attach to a bike’s wheels and synchronize to its speed to provide forward path illumination, a huge an increase in 360-­degree visibility, and a functional brake light.

The Series A financing builds on a $300,000 investment Revolights co­founder Kent Frankovich agreed to after appearing on ABC’s reality show Shark Tank. The critically-­acclaimed business­themed show features pitches from entrepreneurs to a panel of multi-­millionaire and billionaire investors. The offer came from Robert Herjavec, founder of The Herjavec Group (one of Canada’s fastest-­growing technology companies and the country’s largest IT security provider), and his investment was rolled into this funding round.

Led by Kent Frankovich and Adam Pettler, the Bay Area startup was originally launched in 2011, and has been revolutionizing bicycle safety ever since. Its innovative design incorporates style, safety, and functionality, and has earned Core77’s Design Award 2012 for Transportation as well as Men’s Journal Gear of the Year 2013.

The idea for Revolights first came to Kent while he was riding his bike home from graduate school at Stanford when realizing that his helmet mounted headlight was very inefficient at illuminating obstacles. The idea dawned to try and create a better headlight; one that could illuminate more of the road but also make obstacles stand out more clearly through low angle lighting. Being both low to the ground and farthest forward, the wheels were a perfect candidate. Revolights was born.

After building a series of prototypes, Revolights was launched through the crowd-funding platform Kickstarter in September 2011, raising $215,000 and becoming the 7th most funded campaign of 2011. This was followed by a second successful Kickstarter campaign in April 2013, which raised $95,000 and was used to help launch Revolights Wheels (bike wheels with the Revolights system pre-­installed). The next milestone was the $300,000 in equity investment via Shark Tank, which was rolled into this $1 million Series A round.

The mission of Revolights has always been to make cyclists on the road more visible while giving them the functionality they need. This funding will help the company grow further, as co-­founder Kent Frankovich commented, “we are thrilled to scale up our team and expand distribution of our product family to bring a new standard of safety to cyclists worldwide.”

Revolights Series A Investment Groups

About Sierra Angels

Founded in 1997, Sierra Angels is the premier angel investment group in the Northern Sierra region. They provide early stage investments in promising local technology ventures and support the entrepreneurs they fund with mentoring and connections. For more information, visit: http://r­-evo.biz/SierraAngels_

About Sacramento Angels
The Sacramento Angels is a group of individuals who invest in early-stage Northern California companies. They have been in existence since 2000 and members have invested in more than 35 companies (as of June 2010). For more information, visit: http://r­-evo.biz/SacAngels

About The Herjavec Group
The Herjavec Group is one of Canada’s fastest-­growing technology companies and the country’s largest IT security provider. The Herjavec Group delivers complete security and network acceleration services to companies around the globe. For more information, visit: http://r-­evo.biz/HerjavecGroup

About San Joaquin Angels
The San Joaquin Angels is an angel investment group located in San Joaquin County in California’s great Central Valley. San Joaquin Angels provides attractive private company investment opportunities to its members, while enhancing economic prosperity through the financing and growth of local businesses. For more information, visit: http://r­-evo.biz/SanJoaquinAngels

About Berkeley Angel Network
The Berkeley Angel Network is a group of angel investors who are alumni, faculty and former faculty of UC Berkeley. The mission of the Berkeley Angel Network is to build an angel investor community among the alumni and faculty of UC Berkeley, and to improve the collective skills and knowledge of this angel investor community through activities related to angel investing. For more information, visit: http://r­evo.biz/BerkeleyAngelNetwork

About Augment Ventures
Augment Ventures is an early stage venture capital fund investing in passionate high caliber entrepreneurial teams with transformational products for global markets. For more information, visit: http://r-­evo.biz/AugmentVentures